Micro-party adviser Druery backs Senate reform

“All I did was explain how the system worked and off they went and did their own deals,” said Glenn Druery, who helped micro-parties do preference deals with each other at the election.
Photo: James Alcock

Glenn Druery, the man criticised for gaming the electoral system to allow micro-parties to enter the Senate on very little of the primary vote, agrees reform of the system is needed.

Mr Druery says it is too easy to register a political party in Australia but defends his role in advising small parties about how to manipulate preferences to maximise their chances of election.

“All I did was explain how the system worked and off they went and did their own deals," he told ABC radio on Wednesday.

“You can put any spin you like on this, but the bottom line is they are just following the rules."

Mr Druery provided advice to the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party, which won a Victorian Senate seat with less than 10,000 primary votes.

The party received half a per cent of the primary vote and yet unseated the Liberal’s Helen Kroger, who received 10 per cent of the vote.

Mr Druery said political parties had been doing sophisticated preference swaps since the system was brought in about 30 years ago.

“The Democrats would never have been an entity without the system we have, the Greens certainly wouldn’t have the numbers that they do without the system that we have now. And now you’ve seen a couple of minor parties elected."

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However, he agreed it was too easy to set up a Facebook page and have people join your party with a click of a mouse.

“I would like to see the system of party registration go back to something like how it was in the past, with real people, real pieces of paper, real signatures," he said.

He suggested an increase in the threshold for forming a party from 500 members to 1000 or 1500.

There are calls for an overhaul of Senate voting, and re-elected SA Senator Nick Xenaphon will introduce a private members’ bill with the aim of giving voters control over their preferences, rather than political parties.

There will be eight crossbenchers in the new Senate, including potentially three members of the Palmer United Party and Bob Day from Family First.